Ballinderreen 1-20 Pádraig Pearses 0-17
Martin Nally, Tuam Herald
Ballinderreen booked their quarter-final spot in the Premier Intermediate Championship after they saw off Pádraig Pearses when the two sides met in round two last Saturday evening in Loughrea.
Despite leading for the majority of the contest, it wasn’t until Luke Prendergast blasted the sliotar to the net with six minutes remaining that Keith Connolly’s team had finally shrugged off their opponents who refused to give up, but in truth needed a goal of their own.
Both teams had tasted first round success and knew a win here would guarantee a quarter-final berth. There was nothing to choose between the sides in the opening quarter as they matched each other score for score to be level on five occasions.
Luke Mitchell, Dean O’Reilly, Cillian Fahy and Jonah Donnellan with two, were all on target for Pearses. Ballinderreen’s opening scores coming from Matthew O’Connor, Shane Larkin and three Donnacha Ganly pointed frees.
A monster hit from right half back, Shane Cassidy, kickstarted a Ballinderreen purple patch. A point by Robbie Meehan and a couple from Ganly swung the contest in Ballinderreen’s favour.
Jack Barrett and a great score by Cillian Fahy under heavy pressure cut the gap to two but Ganly replied with another free.
Kealan Beckett did reduce the deficit to two but Ballinderreen substitutes, Kevin Lane and Padraig Lafferty, fired over late points as they finished the half strongly. Ganly got another point, this time from play, as Ballinderreen led, 0-13 to 0-8, at half-time.
A feature of the contest was Ganly’s free-taking accuracy. He started the new half with another from a placed ball and would finish the game with 0-12, with 0-11 coming from frees.
A brilliant run down the wing by Dean Reilly saw him get his second of the contest but Robbie Meehan replied with what was also his second of the game.
Pearses were getting plenty of opportunities for scores in the opening minutes of the second half, but five early wides didn’t help their cause.
A brilliant score by Luke Mitchell from the halfway line made it 0-15 to 0-10 but once more Ganly was on target with a free. Ganly and Donnellan then embarked on a free-taking shootout minutes with the latter hitting four and Ganly two as Ballinderreen led by four with 10 minutes remaining.
That became seven in the 54th minute when Luke Prendergast blocked Pearses’ custodian Harry Mitchell’s attempted clearance, before gathering the sliotar and rifling it to the net.
That goal as good as decided the outcome of this top of the table tie. Lafferty and another Ganly free along with two Donnellan pointed frees were the last acts of the contest as Ballinderreen progressed to the knockout stages.
The victory came at a cost for Ballinderreen as Rory Lane and Sean Meehan were both forced off with injuries.
For their part, Pádraig Pearses will know if they bounce back with a win against Rahoon-Newcastle in the final round of group games, they will guarantee themselves a preliminary quarter-final spot.
Ballinderreen: M Kelly; N Delaney, E Morgan, A Organ; S Cassidy (0-1), K Meehan, S Collins; S Meehan, S Larkin (0-1); D Ganly (0-12, 0-11f), R Meehan (0-2), R Lane; M O’Connor (0-1), L Prendergast (1-0), D O’Connor.
Subs: K Lane (0-1) for D O’Connor, 29 mins; P Lafferty (0-2) for N Delaney, 30 mins; R Delaney for S Meehan inj, half-time; C Bailey for R Lane, inj, 34 mins; N Delaney for Larkin, 47 mins
Pádraig Pearses: H Mitchell; R Carr, E Cunniffe, E Lally; J Barrett (0-1), O Flannery (0-1), O Burke; K Beckett (0-1), J Donnellan (0-8, 0-7f); L Mitchell (0-2), E Ward, Conor Fahy; Cillian Fahy (0-2); R Flannery, D Reilly (0-2).
Subs: C Raftery for Beckett, 43 mins; D Fahy for L Mitchell, 45 mins.
Referee: Shane Briscoe (Mullagh).
Herald Sport Man of the Match:
Donnacha Ganly (Ballinderreen).